Light Rail News

Women's sports bar awaits relocation as Austin light rail plan progresses

Businesses displaced by light rail construction will get funds, but the process has been unpredictable.

Austin Transit Partnership rendering/ATPTX.org

Austin’s multibillion-dollar light rail system is advancing toward construction, and some local businesses along the proposed route are preparing for relocation. Among them is the 1972 Women’s Sports Pub, a year‑old establishment on The Drag that has quickly become a gathering place for women’s sports fans.

Co-owner Debra Hallum said the pub was founded with a commitment to showing only women’s sports on its TVs.

"It was from our heart to do something in the community for, again, women putting women on the pedestal, giving them a space of their own,” Hallum said.

But the business is now facing displacement as Project Connect moves into its next phase in the light rail project.

Hallum told KVUE that the pub recently received a letter from the Austin Transit Partnership (ATP) stating the property is needed for the proposed transit project. The site sits in the path of planned changes to Guadalupe and Dean Keeton streets as part of the light rail design.

When signing a four-year lease, Hallum said the pub understood relocation was a possibility but didn’t anticipate it happening so soon.

“We're told that we will get a letter to vacate any day. We're still in limbo,” she said. “We've not received that letter. So, we are waiting.”

Hallum said while the pub will receive relocation assistance to help cover moving costs, it is fundraising to bridge additional expenses, including payroll. She noted that recent changes to U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA) loan eligibility – requiring 100 percent U.S. citizenship among owners — have cut the pub off from a key source of support.

“That’s been our biggest gut punch,” Hallum said. “I mean, that’s what SBA funding and loans are for, is to help your small, local businesses, you know, get started and get established.”

Where the rail project stands
Approved by voters in 2020, Austin’s light rail system aims to reduce congestion and expand transit options across the city. The ATP said the project is progressing through major milestones, including the release of its final environmental impact statement, critical to secure billions of dollars in federal funding and begin construction. That report, based on a May 2025 design, estimates the project will require about 85 acres of land and displace 71 businesses.

Read the full story at our news partner KVUE.com.

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BURGER NEWS

Austin-based P. Terry's launches employee ownership and profit sharing

P. Terry's Burger Stand/ Facebook

P. Terry's now have a stake in the company through an Employer Ownership Trust.

Starting June 9, employees at P. Terry's Burger Stand won’t just be working the fryer. At 38 locations across Texas, 1,800 workers will have a stake in the company as it transitions to an Employee Ownership Trust (EOT).

The cooks, cashiers, and shift leads will not be direct owners of the company. Instead, an independent trust holds company shares on behalf of the employees while preserving cofounders Kathy and Patrick Terry’s original mission.

The model will be coupled with a profit-sharing program for staff with at least two years of tenure under their aprons. Immediately, P. Terry’s will distribute five percent of the operating income among its eligible workers, gradually scaling up to 20 percent.

EOTs are rare among large restaurant chains, which tend to rely on profits from private equity or franchise expansion. But since opening their first 527-square-foot Austin burger stand in 2005, the Terrys have never taken the obvious path to growth.

Inspired by Eric Schlosser’s quick-service restaurant exposé Fast Food Nation, the Terrys sought to create a better restaurant model through careful sourcing, HR programs like interest-free hardship loans, and above-market wages of at least $15 per hour for full-time crew. Its work culture has been much-cited in the industry. Staff bakers make a custom cake for every employee on their birthday.

The company has also baked a community commitment since its founding. Four times a year, all locations host a Giving Back Day, sharing 100 percent of the profits from a peak Saturday service.

"From the beginning, we believed that taking care of people and building a great business weren't competing ideas," said Kathy Terry in a release. "This transition is the most honest expression of that belief we've ever made. P. Terry's has always belonged to the people who show up every day."

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